While the Mount Markham Central School District expedites its search for a permanent superintendent, the district will do something different — sharing an interim with another district.

Mount Markham Superintendent Casey Barduhn will work for the Westhill Central School District in Syracuse beginning Jan. 1, 2013.

Mount Markham’s Board of Education last week appointed Robert Service to start Jan. 1, 2013, and fill in while they search for a permanent replacement, said Mark Vivacqua, search consultant and Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES District superintendent.

“This is going to be a shared position,” he said.

Service currently is the interim Superintendent for Brookfield Central School District, Vivacqua said.

“We haven’t done it before, but this has gone on in other parts of the state,” he said. “Brookfield is a very small school, so the board thought that on a temporary basis this could work.”

The district reached out to community members asking them to fill out a survey on what they are looking for in the new superintendent.

The survey period ended last week and the district received more than 100 responses, Vivacqua said.

Applications for the position close Dec. 31.

Interviews narrowing the candidates to six semifinalists will be completed by mid January, and those selected will be brought in for full-day interviews with community volunteers during the first week of February, he said.

“We’re hoping to make an appointment by the end of February,” Vivacqua said.

The board is hoping to have a new superintendent by May, or the end of June at the latest, school board President Ron Loiacono said.